Candy Gravemarkers
by anna43001
Summary: The story of two pairs of partners, meisters and weapons, and the struggles they face, both through kishin hunting and mundane life. (rated T just in case)
1. Chapter 1

The hot sun streaming through the window felt wonderful against her back, and the steady droning of Professor Calvert was making it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open.

Her head listed slowly to the side before she blinked sluggishly and righted herself, staring blankly at the untouched sheet of notebook paper and pen on her desk.

 _Whoops,_ she thought sleepily, _I'll have to get the notes from Arch…_ It had been happening a lot lately, Rain falling asleep in class, but her partner had been there to keep her caught up, though his _disappointed face_ had become an almost permanent expression.

Arch valued a good education and had a knack for almost anything academic, a skill he was trying, and failing, to impose on her. She really couldn't care less about schoolwork unless it directly affected her soul collecting, and anything she missed that was _actually_ important would be relayed to her through Arch and his bottomless patience.

Her view was that instead of dumbly sitting in a musty, old classroom listening to the ramblings of an ancient teacher, she should be out defeating kishin and saving lives. She could say with some level of certainty that, in real life, she wouldn't use half the things they were taught. It made perfect sense to completely disregard the classes and spend the day soul collecting, and she had begged Arch more than once to skip with her.

He never did, telling her that school was important, that they needed to learn this stuff, telling her to 'quit being silly and walk with me' as they toiled up the stairs of DWMA. So far, they both had a perfect attendance record, since she could never bring herself to leave him behind. Instead, they went hunting after their schedules ended, often arriving back to their apartment late at night, cue her dozing off in class. Though it wasn't like she had paid attention _before_ their midnight ventures, at least _now_ they were useful spots for snoozing.

A sharp poke in the ribs caused her to jump with a start, sending her pen skittering noisily to the floor. She glared pointedly at the disturbance, a tall, red-haired girl with a carefully painted smirk across her face, as she retracted a perfectly manicured finger from her side.

"Class is _over,_ Rain," she mocked, as Rain rolled her eyes, bending down to grab the pen from where it had fallen under the desk. "I _know,_ Ivet, you didn't have to _poke_ me," she grumbled, glancing around at the rows of empty seats and the noticeably absent professor. Leaning over Rain's lap, Ivet frowned disapprovingly at the blank notebook paper, "You've been snoozing again," she accused.

Rain stood, stuffing the paper and pen into her already overflowing messenger bag, "So what? I'm not going to actually _use_ any of this information…" she paused, "besides, Arch will fill me in." The two girls started along the aisle, heading out the classroom door and into the hallway's turmoil of chattering students.

Ivet sighed dramatically, hitching her own bag higher on her shoulder and sidestepping a knot of giggling classmates, "You can't rely on Arch for _everything,_ you should start keeping up with your classes. Stop hunting so late and get some _sleep._ " She glanced at Rain critically, "Heaven knows you need it."

Rain gave her a wry expression, "I'll think about it. Anyway, how's your new art project going? Have you decided who to paint yet?" Ivet was a fairly well known artist around school, specializing in detailed portraits and facial expressions, a hobby that became public after she won an art contest in California. She was currently searching for a poser for her next painting, and was looking around school for 'someone with an interesting face.' "Weeeell," Ivet began, "I have a few ideas… what do you think about Sarah Forster? Or maybe Jeremy Shipton, I really like his cheekbones... oh, but Carson Figel has the most _lovely_ eyes…"

The red head continued her rant, with Rain interjecting her opinion now and then, until they both exited the school. Some students had one or two more classes before they were released, but Rain and Ivet both took early lessons and were finished at around 3:00. This allowed more time for Rain to collect souls, and agreed with Ivet's often detailed and time-consuming art sessions, though they both concurred to missing late mornings and brunch.

The light from the sun was dim and a sheet of grey clouds stretched across the sky, already darkening menacingly. Rain frowned, "Looks like a storm," she observed, subconsciously worrying at her bottom lip with teeth straightened by three years of orthodontics work, "Guess I'll be getting that extra sleep." The other girl grinned, patting her arm with fake sympathy, "Guess so."

They began their trek down the steps of the school, plodding along at a steady pace - both had realized rather quickly that racing down the hard, concrete steps could only end in disaster. It had taken just one trip to the hospital before the lesson was learned.

"And try and give Arch some slack, will you?" Ivet nagged, rolling her eyes, "Poor thing has to put up with you all the time." It was true, they both attended DWMA, had most of the same classes, and shared an apartment three blocks from the school. Ivet liked to tease that they were 'practically married!' but, even with so much proximity, they got along amazingly well together. She had theorized, at first, that it was the bond between meister and weapon that was keeping them from fighting or having personal space issues, but after meeting Ant and Pawn, partners that attended the same school, she knew that wasn't the case. She had the sneaking suspicion that their lack of problems stemmed from Arch's constant even-tempered approach to all situations and avoid-conflict-at-all-costs mentality.

She smirked, "Arch is _exceedingly_ lucky to be graced with my excellent company, it is his solitary enjoyment each and every day." Ivet slowed, eyes clouded and seeing something far away, "No, Rain," she said quietly, "I mean it." Rain halted beside her friend, instantly serious, placing both hands gently on the red-head's shoulders, "I know, Ivet, I know," a heavy weight attached to the words that made Ivet look up, face clearing.

Rain removed her hands , and suddenly lightened the mood, clearing away the shroud that had descended over the two, "We're going to watch movies all night and eat popcorn, I swear, that's all we'll do. No hunting, no homework, movie marathon," a sincerity rung in her words that had Ivet smiling. "Hey!" Rain started, both girls continuing down the stairs, "You could come over, too, I've got a stash of twizzlers and rolos that we could raid." Ivet grinned good-naturedly but shook her head, "Nah, I've got some serious painting to do tonight. You guys hang out, have fun, don't get carried away." "Yeah, yeah," Rain grumbled, "I'll let you know."

Soon they had reached the bottom of the steps, all the grand magnificence of Death Weapon Meister Academy looming over them. _Intimidating_ , she had thought upon first arriving at the school, though that had soon changed to an _ugh, schooool_ whenever the red spires and simplistic skulls entered her view.

Ivet turned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing quickly before pulling away, "Alright, see you tomorrow. Tell Arch I said 'hi'." "Yeah," Rain replied, "I will," before the red-head was off, lightly striding down the sidewalk and off to her empty apartment and tubes of paint. Rain turned away from the girl's retreating form and glanced around the small paved area for Arch. Usually her partner arrived before her and Ivet, though she had no clue as to how he got down the steps so quickly. Spotting his familiar form standing beside a lamp post, she made her way over.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, forgot to do this for the first chapter, but here it is: Soul Eater is not mine.**

 **Not sure how I like this chapter... but let me know what you think!**

The apartment they shared was small and not very well put together, though it gave them a place to sleep and a microwave, so she was satisfied. It had two tiny bedrooms connected by a bathroom, which then opened onto a compact kitchen and an area with their sofa and TV. Her only grievance was that if someone was using the bathroom, the other person had to wait to enter or exit their bedroom, since the bathroom door was the only way in or out. At times, it was frustrating.

She was currently browsing through the shelf of movies on the bookcase in their living room, pushing aside 'The Notebook' and 'Rear Window' to get to the Jason Bourne and James Bond movies. They'd already watched all the films on the shelf, but she didn't mind watching them again. As long as there was popcorn and candy, she was set. Extracting 'The Bourne Identity' from the row of DVD cases, she carried it into the kitchen where small gunshots could be heard from the microwave.

She saw Arch sitting on the kitchen's countertop, swinging pajama-clad legs back and forth against the cabinet below. His skin was pale, causing his dark hair to stand out contrastingly, and he regarded her with a smile, "What's it this time, Rain?" She walked across the kitchen floor to his side, her bare feet cold against the tile, holding up the movie for him to approve. He nodded, "The popcorn's almost done, did you get the rolos?" Peering into the microwave and watching the bag spin, the timer methodically counting down, she replied, "Yeah, they're on the couch, the twizzlers too." Arch was a bonafide candy snob, he wouldn't eat twizzlers or starbursts or lollipops or even skittles, only chocolate, and occasionally chocolate-caramel. She didn't mind, though, more for her. "Hey," Arch said, expression worried, "did you invite Ivet?" Rain sighed, "Yeah, but she said she had painting to do…" then, "do you think she's alright?" Arch frowned, creases appearing along his forehead and at the corners of his eyes like they did when he was deep in thought. His fingers tapped against the laminate counter, a background noise to the mini grenades of the popcorn kernels. "I don't know," he said quietly, "how 'alright' can you be after something like that?" She hummed in agreement, pulling the bag out of the microwave and ripping open the top, sticking a hand inside to 'taste-test.' "Hey!" Arch protested, reaching for the bag, "Wait until the movie's on!"

Arch finally managed to pry the bag from her grasp and she chased him into the living room where they settled onto the sofa. The movie had already started and they had missed the first ten minutes or so, but it was alright. They ate all the popcorn and splurged on rolos and twizzlers while Jason Bourne drove speeding cars in the background.

When the credits rolled onto the screen, they were both ready for bed, half-asleep already. Cutting off the TV and stuffing the empty popcorn bag and candy wrappers in the trash, they stumbled to the bathroom. Arch smiled, fingers drumming away on his thighs, and yawned. "Goodnight, Rain, I had fun." Grinning, she half turned to her own room, "Yeah," she agreed, "See you tomorrow." Both their doors shut, almost simultaneously, with distinct clicks, and not soon after, they were both asleep.

Rain couldn't remember the last time she'd had a dream or nightmare, only solid, uninterrupted _sleep._ She was at the same time mystified and grateful - after all the things she'd seen, she was surprised she didn't have nightmares, and she was very thankful to not have to deal with reliving them. She knew she'd had dreams when she was younger, but, apparently, she'd 'grown out of them,' as her mother explained. She wasn't really sure how someone could _grow out of_ dreaming, but her mother was adamant that that was what had happened. 'Of course you grew out of them, dear, it runs in the family!'

Arch, though, wasn't so lucky. He never called out in his sleep, not so much as a whimper, but she could always tell the next morning if he'd had a nightmare. The circles under his eyes would be darker, and his fingers would bounce almost hysterically against his leg, or the tabletop, or any other available surface. Then he'd get this _look,_ but only after the very worst ones, he'd get this terrible _look._ It could almost be described as _haunted,_ or maybe even _shocked,_ an air about him like all the most horrible things in the world had descended on him while he slept. He never wanted to talk about them, the nightmares. She was selfishly aware that she didn't want to talk about them either, didn't want his cracking voice telling her of all the twisted ways his subconscious tortured him, didn't want him reminding her of the memories.

If he did want to talk, though, she'd be there.

She'd always be there, no doubt about it. They were _partners._ So, she would always be there.

 **· ~ ·**

They'd first met through Ivet. The red-head had introduced them during an accidental meeting on the streets of Death City, beyond pleased when her two friends got along. She invited them over to her place, and from there it was history. Their meeting and friendship grew in the months before school picked back up so, when it was time to 'pick your weapon, pick your meister,' they both agreed full heartedly.

She had also been relieved to have met them before school started, eager to recognize a familiar face at DWMA and avoid the awkward introductions she had been expecting. Ivet was a great help, smiling and initiating conversation with the other milling students, earning her a lot of friendly handshakes and acquaintances, for which she was grateful. Arch pretty much stayed glued to her elbow the entire time, happy to trail behind the girls and wait for the introductory tour to end. That was when she had first met Ant and Pawn, so obviously close, so obviously future partners, there was never one without the other, though that was the case with most pairs. It surprised her, after she'd gotten to know them better, that they fought _constantly._ They seemed to disagree on almost everything, never being able to come up with a unanimous decision. Despite this, they stuck together and were amazing on the battlefield – another surprising fact about the pair she had discovered about a year and a half ago. Arch was equally astonished, whispering to her under his breath that he had though they would be _terrible_ fighting together. Though she guessed it made sense, their natural instinct to disagree focused in on the kishin and went _nuh-uh, no way, not gonna cut it._ It was just how they worked.

 **· ~ ·**

 _They were all at the park._

 _Smiling._

 _Laughing._

 _Happy._

 _He was with them and everything was perfect._

 _Her pockets felt heavy, heavy, heavy with little round candies, their wrappers crinkling noisily every step she took._

 _Those little candies that he would suck, rolling them around his mouth. If you listened closely, you could hear the 'click-clack' of them knocking against his teeth and the swishing sound that meant he was passing them across his tongue, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and-_

 _They were disgusting. Butter rum flavored and a wane yellow color._

 _He loved them._


End file.
